China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has effectively confirmed its solar photovoltaic (PV) installation target for 2015 as being 17.8 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, following the release of new figures from NEA, according to major media reports in China.

The new figures also provide confirmation that the distributed generation goals introduced last year have been scrapped — owing to various reasons, but mostly due to actual installation figures coming nowhere close to previously stated goals.

This new target is approximately a 20% increase over its previous 2015 target of 15 GW (or 14 GW if you use an earlier target).

Interestingly, this year, there’s no indication of how much of the target (or targets) is supposed to come from small-scale (distributed) solar and how much from larger solar projects. Last year, China dramatically missed its small-scale solar target. It’s been estimated by the Chinese government that 2 GW of small-scale solar were installed, while the target was 8 GW.

Perhaps the national government didn’t want to risk missing its target again by its challenges with the small-scale solar market, and greater unpredictability in that sphere.

About the Author

James Ayre James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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